Valarie
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "strength, health."
Name Census estimates that about 15,424 living Americans carry the first name Valarie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Valarie today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Valarie births was 1964 (641 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Valarie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,222 Americans
Peak year
1964
641 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,454
Tracked since 1910
Census
Valarie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 14,351 people with the first name Valarie, which placed it at #1,948 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,948
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
14,351 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Valarie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valarie is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Hispanic (14.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Valarie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Valarie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.6% · 7,408
- Black or African American28.1% · 4,032
- Hispanic or Latino14.6% · 2,094
- Two or more races3.2% · 453
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 199
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 165
Popularity
Valarie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Valarie from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 5,166 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Valarie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Valarie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Valaries live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Valarie, while Wyoming, Rhode Island, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 335 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Valarie
The name Valarie is a French feminine name derived from the Latin name Valeria, which itself has roots in the Roman family name Valerius. The name Valerius is believed to have originated from the Latin word "valere," meaning "to be strong" or "to be well."
In ancient Roman times, the name Valeria was commonly given to girls born into the influential Valeria family, one of the most prominent patrician families of ancient Rome. The Valeria gens, as they were known, played a significant role in the history of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Valeria can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Valeria, the sister of the Roman general and statesman Publius Valerius Publicola, who lived in the 6th century BC.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, the name Valeria and its variants, including Valarie, gained popularity across Europe, particularly in France and England. It was often associated with nobility and aristocracy.
Notable historical figures named Valarie include Saint Valerie of Limoges, a 6th-century French abbess and patron saint of lepers. Another prominent bearer of the name was Valerie of Milan, a 5th-century Italian saint and martyr.
In the 16th century, the French noblewoman Valerie de Valois, daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, was a prominent figure at the French court during the Renaissance.
During the 18th century, the French philosopher and writer Valerie Raisin-Toussaint, born in 1743, gained recognition for her literary works and her involvement in the French Enlightenment.
In more recent times, the name Valarie has been borne by notable figures such as Valarie Pettiford, an American actress, and dancer born in 1960, and Valarie Kaur, a renowned Sikh American filmmaker, author, and civil rights activist born in 1981.
While the name Valarie has its roots in ancient Roman history, it has evolved and been embraced across various cultures, particularly in France and other European countries, where it has been associated with strength, nobility, and resilience over the centuries.
People
Valarie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Valarie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Valarie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Valarie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,424 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Valarie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 22,222 US residents.
Is Valarie a common name?
We classify Valarie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,666 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Valarie most popular?
The single biggest year for Valarie was 1964, when 641 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Valarie is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Valarie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 14,351 people with the name Valarie, or 4.75 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,948 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Valarie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Valarie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Valarie appears almost entirely female. Of the 14,355 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Valarie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Valarie is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Hispanic (14.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Valarie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Valarie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (7,408 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Valarie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Valarie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Valarie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Valarie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Valarie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Valarie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Valarie?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.